Sleep, Sand, Snorkelling, and Sunsets
Days 5 & 6: November 4 & 5, 2019

Monday:
We truly hit the ground running when we arrived in St. Lucia and so when Monday arrived our plans of going back the Anse Chastenet were thrown right out the window and after breakfast we both went right back to sleep.
Our day consisted of sleeping, Rob reading “Celtic Empire”, the latest in the Dirk Pitt series, and I a fluff romcom book called “Waiting for Tom Hanks”. It reads like a Hallmark movie and I’m not quite sure how I feel about it yet because it’s like watching a poorly acted movie where you know exactly what will happen in the end, except I’m reading it in a book. When I couldn’t take reading “Waiting for Tom Hanks” any longer I spent the afternoon writing about our days thus far and then figuring out the best way to get it online. The internet is slow here and it requires a bit of patience when uploading pictures. It seems Facebook is the easiest way to go about it and I’m so amazed and humbled by all the people who have taken the time to follow along on our tropical adventure. I just looked up the current forecast in Calgary right now and all I can say is that I’m so thankful I’m here and not there!
Rob and I finished off our day on the balcony reading our books and watching the sunset.
Today was the first day both Rob and I felt relaxed and settled. We started our vacation off pretty much the same way our life has been for the last 10 months, going hard and barely stopping. We weren’t feeling relaxed or present, and we both agree that taking the day to breathe and just do what ever helped pull us into the here and now and not feel so stressed out. It’s easy to believe that everyday needs to be filled with activity, especially when there’s a ticking clock but being still has actually helped us to be able to appreciate our time here and delight in each moment. I am so thankful for today.
Tuesday:
Rob woke up with a sore throat. We both woke up around 7am and decided to spend our day at Pigeon Island because we didn’t want to drive very far and we were hoping the water had cleared so we could have better snorkelling conditions. The water had been really foggy near Castries for the last couple of days and it made snorkelling pointless. Another reason for going to Pigeon is that it’s a national park. It has showers and toilets, a lovely restaurant close to the beach, and the best part for us there’s no pedlars hassling is all the time like there is on the public beaches. The entry fee to the park is $10 each but we were willing to spend the money to have some peace and quiet and access to good food and facilities.
The only downside to Pigeon Island is that it’s a bit of a walk from the car so we have to bring everything we need with us in our backpacks and unfortunately there’s no place to lock them up. Rob felt quite worried about our stuff just being left out in the open and although I’m a bit more relaxed about the whole thing, I agree that having a secure place would be nice.
That being said today was an utter delight! I mean truly. Once we got over the worry of leaving our backpacks on the beach we enjoyed every wonderful moment there. The temperature on land wasn’t so unbearable, like it was when we went to the fort and we were both dripping of sweat. The water was warm like a bathtub close to the beach and cooled as you moved further away, which I love because I’m the kind of person who cannot tolerate slowly wading in!
The water was perfectly clear and Rob and I spent hours upon hours immersing ourselves in the reef. We saw thousands of swirling fish in a massive school following each other around and skittering back and forth with incredible speed. We saw spotted eels, which always freak me out, neons, a small blue fish with bright shiny blue spots (that one was my favourite fish), and a small octopus who did an impressive job trying to blend into the rocks below us.
Speaking blending in! There are some incredibly camouflaged fish in the sea! I followed this one fish who’s colouring matched the sand floor impeccably and when he figured out I was on to him he stopped, wiggled his body, and vanished under the sand. I tried to show Rob this little guy’s act but when I looked back I couldn’t find it anymore. #madskills!
One thing that put a huge smile on my face was playing with these little white-ish fish in the shallows. We would lay on our stomachs in the water, just deep enough that we could sink our hands into the sand and then within a few seconds a new friend would make its way over and swim within centimetres of our fingers! As we would swish the sand around in our fingers and toss a bit of it up into the water the fish would swim around in it like confetti, and then make its way back to our hands. You could almost touch them they we so close. I played like this for quite awhile just simply amused with my new fishy friend.
We ended our day at the beach with a coffee cream dessert from the restaurant on the beach and then made our way home just in time to enjoy the sunset.
It was truly another day of great delight.
We’re hoping that we’ll be able to get some decent shots of all the fishes the next time we go. Unfortunately, our GoPro was dead before we even got started for some reason.
Side Note:
I am having the hardest time with sunscreen. I burned my legs a bit at Anse Chastenet but today was even worse and I religiously dried and reapplied. I’m not entirely sure what to do because I hate burning and want to avoid it as much as possible. Any thoughts?
